Bridge at the best tables in town
It’s demanding, sophisticated and fun. But beware, the eyes have it in spades
As a boy I loved it when my parents hosted bridge parties, which they did from time to time.
When no one was looking, I’d sneak up and steal some of those triangular cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches and pastries that would be laid out for the adults, and as I enjoyed my illgotten gains, feeling about as much guilt as a raccoon does at a tipped-over green cart, I would watch them play.
It was like a hockey game — all this robust gamespersonship, skillful precision and careful positioning, interrupted every so often by what people really came to see. The fights.
But these were not jerseyclutching, arms-windmilling, Don Cherry drooling donnybrooks. These were “looksacross-the table” (North to South, East to West) and cryptically worded slights of such nuanced and veiled viciousness and subtlety that even Eugene O’Neill wouldn’t go there.
Later my parents would postmortem the evening. “Did you see the Petersons? Oh, her eyes, when he overcalled on that diamond bid — they were like Lee Van Cleef ’s in a spaghetti western.”
Which is all my meandering way of saying a fond, albeit teasing, happy 20th birthday, Hamilton Bridge Centre.
In 1998, Viktoria and Chuck Renaud took over the club that preceded it, and over the intervening two decades they’ve turned it into a thriving community of players, drawn from a broader, more eclectic pool of prospective members than there had been in the past. (It is the only full-time American Contract Bridge League-accredited club in Hamilton.) They’ve put on tournaments, workshops.
There are very strong, experienced veterans. And there are beginners, learning under Viktoria’s expert tutelage.
I was one of those beginners. I wasn’t able, due to scheduling conflicts, to keep it up but I thoroughly enjoyed my time, learning this game of incredible variety and excitements. Yes, it’s also a game of sophistication, which rivals (some would say surpasses) chess in its magnificent complexity. But it’s great fun even at a learning level and, at every level, a game of social stimulation.
“It’s also about helping conquer dementia,” says Viktoria, a lifelong bridge enthusiast. “It’s good for the brain. But beyond that, our club people have become friends. It’s challenging, but such fun to play.”
It sure is. But as with anything worth doing, the more care you take in your play, the more fun bridge gets, the more fun it gets,
the more you play and the more competitive you get and the more competitive you are, the harder it is to tolerate mistakes.
“The joke in bridge,” says Viktoria, “is that it’s not recommended you play (as partner) with anyone you’re sleeping with, have slept with or will sleep with.”
But, she adds just as quickly, that stereotype of bridge is itself a comic exaggeration. Just in case, though, the Hamilton Bridge Centre, has a “zero tolerance” policy against rudeness at the tables.
“You cannot berate your partner,” says Viktoria. “No one ever plays better for being berated.”
Chuck, 91, is a pillar of support at the club but doesn’t actually play “unless I have to,” he says with a smile. If there’s a player short, for instance. Many know Chuck from his decades of work in theatre and with IATSE and volunteering — he’s received many plaques: 50 years service, 60 years service.
He played a lot of bridge in his 20s, when he was stationed in Coral Harbour in the Arctic, with
the military.
It was a risk when the Renauds took over, but the Hamilton Bridge Centre survived and here it is, heading into a new decade. The challenges, though, are still there. Aging is the biggest, and Viktoria and Chuck are hoping to attract more youth as well as older players. Also, while still at the same location, the centre has been moved upstairs at 100 Ray North, and has had its schedule somewhat abridged.
The game is an ancient one, a timeless one, with so many virtues to commend it. It must live on. It’s a part — an improving part (and do we ever need that these days) — of the culture.
The Hamilton Bridge Centre celebrates its 20th Sat., Oct. 13 — celebrity speaker/workshop leader from Toronto, John “Mr. MoBridge” Rayner, from 10 a.m. to noon, followed by lunch and an afternoon bridge game. At 100 Ray St. N.
For more, hamiltonbridge.com.